Wimbornechinesemed.co.uk

Wimborne Chinese Medicine Clinic Newsletter - Spring 2009
Welcome to the Year of the Ox, which starts on the 26th Jan. The Ox symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Those born under the influence of the Ox or Buffalo are fortunate to be stable and persevering. The typical Ox is a tolerant person with a strong character; and it‟s said that few people equal the resolution and fearlessness that the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task. They work hard in the knowledge that hard work and sustained efforts will bring success, and are not believers in get-rich-quick schemes. Reassuringly Barack Obama was born under the sign of the Ox; let‟s hope it really is going to be his year. George Bush was a Dog; patriotic, idealistic & a crusader against tyranny & oppression!
If you haven‟t seen it, the Clinic has launched a websitewhich has allowed a number of changes to the way I work to occur; there‟s an online Consultation Formthat can be downloaded and filled in prior to the first treatment. People have so far been very happy with it, as it gives them the opportunity to reflect rather than be put on the spot for an answer, it also means that I can quickly gain an overview and focus on the “important bits”, so it‟s cut time and cost too. There are also special Sports Injury and Children’s Clinics that are running; these have shorter appointment times and are priced at £25. It also means that I can highlight links to interesting research One of the areas that acupuncture (and Chinese Herbs) is getting a lot of positive publicity at the moment is in the field of fertility assistance; research suggests that acupuncture increases conception rates by 65%; links to the relevant articles are available on the site. I will include other links to good articles as and when they appear, and I come across them. My thanks to David Carmichael for all the hard work he‟s put into creating and managing the site. The website has also provided the necessary impetus to change the look of all the Clinic literature. If you‟d prefer to receive news via email please let me know by contacting me at justhextall@tiscali.co.uk. Late hours: just to remind people know that the clinic is open to 7.30pm on Wednesdays and to 7.00pm on Thursdays so that people can make it after work.
There‟s an Open Day at the Clinic on the morning of Saturday 7th March; if you know someone who‟s curious and would like to pop in to see what it‟s all about, please let them know!
The Hayfever season is coming, so it seems timely: I first treated Mrs M in 2005; she had started to get hayfever during the pregnancy of her 3rd child ten years before and it had got progressively worse – for the last two years she was on Ventolin as well as antihistamines to help her breathe. Typically the symptoms started in January and lasted till May; she had dry, very itchy eyes and throat, sneezing fits, heavy sweating and a cough that would keep her awake most of the night; understandably she was exhausted and wanted life to improve. In both Chinese and Western medicine hayfever symptoms are the body‟s over-reaction to an external stimulus. The Chinese medical treatment is to clear the body‟s system of the factors that are causing the sneezing etc („flu symptoms if you like), and then to support the immune system so that it stops over-reacting (like a tired toddler). After 2 treatments; the itchy eyes and throat had gone, sneezing was slight but sleep was still a problem; a further treatment and a herbal prescription and she was 90% better except for the odd day that year. Ongoing treatment was carried on throughout the year
for other issues which also helped increase her energy. Since 2005 the hayfever has not arrived until March/April with much less extreme symptoms - herbs and acupuncture were given straight away and the problem resolved quickly; she has also been off all Western hayfever medication since 2005. Over-view: the hayfever arose as a result of her “reserves” being exhausted by her third pregnancy and hadn‟t recovered – in fact with 4 small children to look after her energy levels and sleep hours kept falling, her immune system increasingly over-reacted and the hayfever symptoms worsened as a part of the vicious cycle. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs were able to quickly cool down her immune response, (which also meant she slept), and were then able to build up her reserves of energy so that for the last 3 years January no longer signals the onset of 5 months of torment.
US Military tries 'battlefield' acupuncture to ease pain
Using ancient Chinese medical techniques, a small team of US military doctors has begun treating wounded troops suffering from severe or chronic pain with acupuncture. The technique is proving so successful that the Air Force will begin teaching "battlefield acupuncture" in 2009 to physicians deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, senior officials have announced. The initiative marks the first high-level endorsement of acupuncture by the traditionally conservative military medical community. Their experience over several years indicates the technique developed by Col. Richard Niemtzow, an Air Force physician, can relieve even unbearable pain for days at time. This enables badly wounded patients to begin to emerge from the daze of pain-killer drugs administered by surgeons in the field. "This is one of the fastest pain attenuators in existence - the pain can be gone in five minutes," said Niemtzow, a physician, acupuncturist and senior adviser to the Air Force surgeon general. He and others stressed that tiny needles cannot replace morphine and other powerful drugs used in combat medicine. And they acknowledged that acupuncture doesn't work for everyone. But neither does acupuncture provoke the kind of adverse side effects, allergic reactions and potential addiction associated with powerful psychotropic drugs often used to dull the pain of the severely wounded. "We use acupuncture as an adjunct to traditional therapy” said Niemtzow. "The Chinese have used it for 5,000 years. It works, and it's powerful." The procedure developed by Niemtzow is a variation of traditional Chinese acupuncture, Niemtzow's variation uses one or more needles inserted into any of five points on the ear. The needles, which penetrate about a millimetre (or 4/100ths of an inch) into the skin, fall out after several days, and the procedure can be repeated. Battlefield acupuncture has been especially effective among patients suffering from a combination of combat wounds, typically a brain injury or severed limbs, burns and penetrating wounds along with severe disorientation and anxiety. For these patients, the alleviation of pain is a critical step in their eventual healing and recovery. "We get damaged and psychologically troubled people here, and our approach is to turn down their pain, let them relax, get some sleep, and then they can focus on their healing," said Air Force Col. Stephen M. Burns. Acupuncture "is very well tolerated and there are very few side effects," apart from occasional bruising, "I think it has tremendous potential for military medicine." [Chinese Medicine Times, 2008]
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